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Crytek have released a statement, which states that the Crytek UK team will indeed be transferring to Deep Silver:

Firstly, Crytek has been in extensive discussions with leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, Koch Media, regarding the acquisition of rights for the “Homefront” IP. On completion of the proposed acquisition, the Homefront team from Crytek’s Nottingham studio would transfer their talents to Koch Media in compliance with English law and continue their hard work on upcoming shooter, “Homefront: The Revolution”. Both parties hope to finalize and implement a deal soon.

The internal restructuring will also see the development of Crytek IP, “HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age”, transferred from their studio in Austin, USA to Frankfurt. Crytek will retain a presence in Austin, with several staff members maintaining the CRYENGINE support team to assist North American licensees. Employees who are not set to be part of that support team will be invited to apply for new positions at Crytek in Germany.

Crytek founder and CEO, Cevat Yerli, said: “As we look to cement Crytek’s future, this strategic deal with Koch Media would allow us to continue with our ambitious goals to become an online publisher. With Warface, Arena of Fate and HUNT, we believe we have the perfect portfolio and teams to make that happen. We would like to thank all our staff – past and present – in both Nottingham and Austin for their contributions to the company, and we wish all the very best to anyone who may no longer be under the Crytek banner moving forward.”

Crytek’s studios in Budapest, Istanbul, Kiev and Sofia will continue to operate as usual. A closer collaboration between Crytek’s studios in Shanghai and Seoul is under review.

It’s also possible that the sale of Homefront and savings from offloading Crytek UK to Deep Silver and shuttering Austin provided Crytek with the cash infusion they needed to pay employees. So far Crytek has not said where that money came from.

[Original Story]

Koch Media and its publishing arm Deep Silver have acquired the rights to the Homefront franchise, including rights to the in-development title Homefront: The Revolution and all of its assets.

This comes a year and a half after Crytek purchased the Homefront brand during the bankruptcy of publisher THQ. That’s something of a bitter irony now, as Crytek appears to be teetering on the brink of its own financial collapse.

Deep Silver will publish the upcoming video game under a new Nottingham-based in-house developer, Deep Silver Dambuster Studios. Dambuster is the third Koch Media developer, along with Deep Silver Volition and Deep Silver Fishlabs.

“We are thrilled to see another great IP joining the Deep Silver universe,” Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media Group, said in a statement. “We strongly believe in the potential of Homefront: The Revolution and trust in the new team to continue the path they have been walking in the last years.”

Crytek has been struggling for months, failing to pay employees and hemorrhaging staff. Many feared that Homefront: The Revolution would simply never be made.

An acquisition by Deep Silver indicates that the German publisher at least has enough faith in the title to see it through. No word on how this impacts developers at Crytek UK where the game was originally being developed. I’ve reached out to Deep Silver to find out if any of that studio will be making the leap to work on the game at Hambuster.

The fate of the Crytek itself is uncertain. The CryEngine maker’s troubles follow poor sales of Ryse: Son of Rome and may also stem from the company’s foray into free-to-play. The German developer and publisher also faces stiff competition in the game engine department, against competitors like Epic’s Unreal engine and the Unity engine.

Hopefully the company finds its feet before it’s too late. I still hold out hope that a new Crysis game could be as good as the first one. Crysis 3 was a major disappointment.

Deep Silver is the publisher of games such as Dead Island, Metro: Last Light and Saint’s Row.

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